WASHINGTON — To boil the political narrative of the Senate's massive immigration bill down to Colorado is to see the lengths Democrats like Sen. Michael Bennet went through in hopes of wooing Republican counterparts like Reps. Mike Coffman and Scott Tipton.

Bennet was one of the eight architects of the bill who worked with key Republican senators to commit to spend an extra $38 billion on border security — 20,000 new agents, 700 miles of new fencing, expensive technology such as drones and infrared cameras — to make the entire package appealing to House Republicans.

Bennet, and most Democrats, acknowledge the Senate likely didn't need the tens of billions in extra border security to get to the 60 votes needed to successfully pass the measure Thursday.

The bipartisan "Gang of Eight" — which includes Republicans from the border state of Arizona, Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake — signed off on the initial $8 billion as enough to amply stiffen the frontier between Mexico and the United States.

But the gamble the Senate took to make the House members like the bill enough to eventually pass a version was, at least for Colorado's members, completely unsuccessful.

Colorado's four House Republicans Thursday uniformly said they were not impressed with the Senate package. They said they couldn't support providing a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally. They resented pressure from the U.S. Senate to pass its version of the bill. And all insisted on proof the border was secure before tackling legalization — something the Senate soundly rejected as a "poison pill" unpalatable to Democrats.

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"I think securing the border is really important, and I think it's important the American people have confidence that it's done, and I think that needs to happen before other things happen," said Coffman, an Aurora Republican whose new district is 20 percent Latino.

On whether Coffman supports a pathway to citizenship, he said, "I'm still undecided. I have to see what the rest of the compromise is ... To govern, you have to compromise."

Both he and Cortez Republican Scott Tipton were softer on the so-called DREAMers — young people who were brought to the country by parents as children.

Coffman said he was working with other lawmakers on a House DREAM Act.

"We need to be able to deal with them (the DREAMers) compassionately," Tipton said.

As for the adults, Tipton said, "not one person who is here illegally can be in front of anyone trying to get through the legal process."

The Senate bill addresses such concerns by expediting in the next 13 years the process for people who are in the figurative queue to get into the U.S.

Tipton said the "most important thing" is to fix the problem.

"I would not vote for it," said Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, an hour before the final 68-32 Senate vote. "It doesn't focus on border security, and it does it the wrong way. It moves the ball down the field without ensuring borders are secure."

Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, said the increased emphasis on border security was appealing, but then he called the bill a "nonstarter."

"I don't care how many senators vote for it," he said. "The system we have now is broken, but I don't want to go down the wrong path just for the sake of doing something. People should not be rewarded or given expedited treatment or preference if they come here illegally."

Lamborn said he was "still wrestling" about whether anyone — including DREAMers — deserved any pathway to citizenship and said he wanted border security before the conversation even started.

That sentiment, adhered to by some Senate Republicans as well, is a deal crusher in the delicate compromise that has been parsed over the past several months of negotiations, said Frank Sharry, executive director of the pro-immigration reform group America's Voice.

And Sharry was quick to point to the political risks waiting for conservatives.

"The Democrats are giving Republicans a chance to get right with Latino voters," Sharry said. "For Republicans to now say the enforcement isn't strong enough comes off as a sorry excuse from people who do not want 11 million Latino immigrants to become citizens. They keep moving the goal post, and what it reveals is that it will never be good enough for them."

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